GroupM’s mighty MediaCom has been on a new business mission since losing the £2bn VW account to Omnicom’s PHD and now it’s added Vauxhall/Opel across Europe. General Motors’ Vauxhall/Opel was sold to France’s PSA Group (Peugeot and Citroen) this year which also moved its estimated £700m media business to MediaCom. But MediaCom had to pitch for Vauxhall/Opel all the same.
PSA says it expects to achieve “great synergies” with its new media arrangements, which presumably means a crackdown on price. Car companies as a whole are struggling to maintain their marketing budgets as the market changes, with developments like electric cars and ride sharing revolutionising the industry. Some are as much banks as carmakers these days.
Vauxhall/Opel was handled by Dentsu Aegis’ Carat network, which also handles GM in the US. That account, worth around $2bn, will inevitably come up for review some time in the future and will be the first major test for former McCann boss Nick Brien, recently installed as head of Denstu Aegis in North America.
